This invention relates to a trocar catheter and, more particularly, to a chest tube assembly for evacuating air, fluid, or blood to allow for re-expansion of a collapsed lung and for maintaining drainage until the collapsed lung has been fully re-expanded.
Trocar catheters or chest tube assemblies have been developed for draining the pleural cavity, thereby permitting a collapsed lung to re-expand. To avoid possible damage to the patient, the chest tube assembly must be capable of insertion through the chest wall of the patient without flexing or deviation from the desired path. In addition, the penetration of the assembly must be accomplished without inflicting trauma to the expanding lung.
Conventional chest tube assemblies may be of a single element construction such as a catheter of rigid material having a pointed end for penetrating tissue. Chest tube assemblies may alternatively be in the form of a flexible, straight catheter having an axial lumen. With such catheters, a trocar is inserted through the lumen so as to selectively project from the distal end thereof. The trocar provides the catheter with sufficient rigidity during placement within the patient's body.
Notwithstanding these prior developments in the field of trocars and catheters, further improvements are needed in the construction of chest tube assemblies. Such improvements include giving the user an indication of the approximate position within the patient of the distal end of assembly, providing an improved anchoring function once the assembly is inserted into the pleural cavity, and minimizing the likelihood that drainage will be inhibited by clogging or obstruction so that proper drainage of the cavity may occur.